Re­mem­brance tree ready for do­na­tions

Aro­hanui Hospice in part­ner­ship with Farm­ers in Palmer­ston North and Levin, have launched the an­nual Tree of Re­mem­brance to ac­knowl­edge those spe­cial peo­ple.

Aro­hanui’s Emma An­der­son said un­til Christ­mas Eve, Farm­ers’ cus­tomers will be of­fered a re­mem­brance card in ex­change for a do­na­tion so they can write a mes­sage and have it hung on the tree. The hospice fundrais­ing cam­paign was of­fi­cially launched in store last Thurs­day by Miss Manawatu Michelle Feld­berg.

An­der­son said two trees, which will be staffed by hospice vol­un­teers, would be ac­ces­si­ble out in front of The Plaza en­trance to Farm­ers from Thurs­day.

Hav­ing vol­un­teers to talk with those writ­ing out the cards is unique to The Plaza store.

‘‘Peo­ple some­times be­come tear­ful, so there is usu­ally a box of tis­sues kept handy,’’ An­der­son said.

Farm­ers’ Car­ing for our Com­mu­ni­ties ini­tia­tive will also see trees erected in the com­pany’s new Home store on Ran­gi­tikei St and at Farm­ers in Levin. There were ad­di­tional com­mu­nity trees in set up in Aro­hanui Hospice shops.

Farm­ers cus­tomers could also add to the Flox Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tion col­lectibles, with a new Christ­mas tree bauble by Kiwi de­signer Hay­ley King made es­pe­cially to ac­com­pany the cam­paign.

Aro­hanui’s Clare Ran­dall said the Tree of Re­mem­brance was a ma­jor fundraiser for the hospice.